rFactor 2
The BMW M4 GT3 is Coming to rF2
More details: https://www.studio-397.com/2022/02/announcing-the-bmw-m4-gt3/
Announcing the INDYCAR IR-18
Find out all about the new car on the Studio 397 website, link below:
https://www.studio-397.com/2022/02/announcing-indycar-ir-18/
Introducing the Ligier JS P320 LMP3 for rFactor 2!
Read up on the full details on the link below:
https://www.studio-397.com/2022/02/announcing-the-ligier-js-p320-lmp3/
Announcing Daytona International Speedway for rFactor 2
https://www.studio-397.com/2022/01/announcing-daytona-international-speedway/
rFactor 2 | The Road Ahead
2022 is in full swing, and what a way the year has started for rFactor 2! Following on from the incredibly successful Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual, the team here at Studio 397 aren’t lifting our collective feet off the gas any time soon, as we begin to ramp up to what should be a very exciting few months of news and developments coming to the title.
The New UI Refresh
Late last week, we released our exceptionally well received big 2022 UI update to the public build of the simulation, and we are absolutely delighted to see the wealth of positive feedback these latest changes have generated. Whilst we are of course delighted with this first successful launch, and as we referenced in our release notes from Thursday, the new 2022 UI Update is just the very start of our journey into enhancing the player experience within rFactor 2 – so make sure you stay tuned to our social media channels and the rFactor 2 website for more news and insights over the coming weeks and months.
A New Release Schedule
Speaking of developments, to better streamline our improvement offerings to the community, we have taken the decision to reorganize the way we deploy content and updates to rFactor 2. For 2022, we are going to move development to a quarterly series of releases, committing our resources to producing scheduled updates and content drops on a three-month cycle, in order to maximize our own internal workflows, and to help the sim racing community have greater transparency and expectation as to when new and exciting changes are planned to come to the software.
While we will of course aim to adhere to these proposed schedules, software development is fraught with new and unexpected challenges, so please do consider these dates as a broad guideline – things may well move around a little over the year, and of course we will use the intermittent weeks between these releases as opportunities to bring any hotfix updates and small surprises as and when we can, too…
Our intention is to offer a healthy mix of new game update features, functionality, and quality of life improvements, alongside an exciting collection of premium content for the sim – some as free additions, and some as part of paid Steam Store content.
It would, quite frankly, be inviting risk to detail exactly what these items are this far in advance; however we can certainly share with you the dates of each expected update release – and of course we will very much look forward to announcing the content items themselves much closer to the actual date than previously was possible before.
Furthermore, although we deemed it unnecessary to adhere to our now standard Release Candidate strategy for the 2022 UI Update build of rFactor 2, we will be following that process with these quarterly updates. That means, on average, we will likely deploy the new Release Candidate around 4 weeks prior to updating the public branch of the build. This way, we can continue to monitor the feedback from our latest changes, and ensure any further tweaks and improvements have been tested with as wide a range of different hardware as possible, before moving to the main ‘opt-out’ branch of rFactor 2.
Below, you will find the intended months for when these release cycles will take place:
Quarter 1 Release – February
Quarter 2 Release – May
Quarter 3 Release – August
Quarter 4 Release – November
Again, to reiterate from earlier in this post, we will likely still deploy further hotfix updates and the odd surprise into the simulation outside of these months, however from here on in these are very much expected to represent the core development periods of rFactor 2 over the next year. We have some very exciting things in the pipeline here at Studio 397, please do stay tuned to the rFactor 2 social media channels and website over the coming days, as we begin to reveal the details of the new content that will make up our Quarter 1 drop in early February!
Stay safe and see you on the track!
Releasing the 2022 UI Update for rFactor 2
The day you have all been waiting for is here… the anticipation has built, the preview videos have been poured over in the finest of detail, and now, dear community members – release time is upon us!
That’s right, this morning the team here at rFactor 2 are absolutely delighted to welcome you all to try our new 2022 UI Update for the simulation – an update that we have put together in order to breathe a new lease of life into rFactor 2, adding a modern, fit for purpose and easy to navigate user Interface that works hard to rationalise, condense and contain all the options and features you are used to with rFactor 2, but in a structured, sensible and easy to navigate and engage visual interface.
This new build has been developed in house by the Studio 397 team, considering the wealth of community feedback we have received in recent years, alongside our own detailed analysis and knowledge from the world of virtual motorsports. Developed to be user friendly for players fresh into the simulation, whilst also making life easier and more convenient for experienced players, we are delighted with how this build has developed over time – and we most certainly intend to use this platform as a springboard for further enhancements over time.
The rFactor 2; UI Now, and Future
The new build today marks the start of our new UI journey, as such we still have a few minor areas of the UI where further development is required to iron out remaining issues – and we’ve also identified a number of areas that we wish to expand upon and improve as we move forward with development. In order to give you a brief overview of where some of our development thoughts are heading, we’ve put together a quick headline summary, found below:
Under Consideration
- Esports & stream watch area.
- Improved singleplayer AI selection & handling.
- Improved multiplayer server list with more server information.
- Function to override car logo’s on cars that share manufacturer name with official content.
- More car telemetry in setup screen.
- More car telemetry in monitor.
Known Issues
- Occasional white screen before start screen and when saving display settings.
- Orange compare numbers do not reset when going back to default setup and still show when changing setup settings with no changeable values.
- Some special characters are not displayed correctly in the car select page and setup pages.
- Wheel load is showing N as unit, but value is kg in setup chassis page.
- Amount of players in server field is cropped when string is too long.
- Multiclass graphics in the event screens are not visually optimized.
- There is currently no way to overwrite a custom controller profile.
- There is currently no way to remove a custom controller profile.
- Driver label above mini monitor is empty after session change.
- Steering rate is yet to be implemented in the new UI.
- Default FOV shows as 9 in graphics settings menu.
Please do remember, the build release today is the start of our UI improvement journey, and although we have some exciting plans, not all of which are detailed in the above list, we also recognise that sometimes development priorities and possibilities change over time. With that said, we will work exceptionally hard to continue what we believe to be a very positive start with this new build, and we cannot wait to share with you our developments as the year unfolds.
The 2022 UI Update Build
Client: 8092611
Dedicated Server: 8092617
rF2 Build:
- Added Push-to-Pass and Weight Jacker.
- Custom controller profiles no longer save with -80% exaggerate yaw.
- Yaw override in controller profiles defaults to being disabled unless added manually.
- Official controller profiles have been updated to override this to 0% for all steering wheels, among other override changes.
- Reviewed Glare Settings to reduce excessive brightness in day, and improve headlights at night.
- Some small adjustments to Lighting Parameters, to bring warmer hues to the scene.
- Improved windscreen rain effects and external car glass specular
- Fixed stutters in replay monitor.
- Driver labels re-enabled, updated with new behaviour and style.
More details and videos, visit the Studio 397 website article; https://www.studio-397.com/2022/01/rfactor-2-build-update-the-2022-ui-update-is-here/
Announcing the 2022 UI Update For rFactor 2!
Find out everything you need to know on the link below:
https://www.studio-397.com/2022/01/announcing-the-2022-ui-update-for-rfactor-2/
New Release Candidate Update - Client 7889012
Today we are pleased to deploy a new Release Candidate update for rFactor 2!
The new build deployed today sees a return of a much-requested feature by our sim racing community here at rFactor 2 – driver labels! We at the studio resolved to review and improve how these labels are shown in the simulation with this new update, and I’m sure you will agree the new design is far more appealing visually than before, with the added bonus of new functionality introduced that now finally shows any in session penalties applied to the driver.
We have extensively tested these new driver labels to ensure they offer the best solution between clarity and visual effect, without compromising the view of the driver and ensure the labels appear and disappear at appropriate distance from the player car – we hope you like what we did!
Other changes that form part of this latest Release Candidate include some further refinements to our graphics engine, with particular attention paid to the way rain is presented on car windshields and subtle but immersive improvements to glare and lighting situations. These changes have offered us the opportunity to further improve this aspect of the software and produce what we believe is a far superior way of representing rain drops on windscreens – adding what we believe is a much enhanced visual experience.
Update Notes
Client 7889012
Dedi 7889035
HUD
New driver labels
Graphics
New wet windscreen shading that can be tweaked per car
Adjusted Lighting Calculations correcting some issues with Direct Light Hue.
Updated PostFX Glare Settings for more control day vs night
Updated Windscreen Shader and new Glass shader for Tracks, with improved specular calculations.
Modding
Fixed duplicated Road and Curb shaders displaying in Max plugins.
Announcing Sim Formula Europe 2022
Find out everything you need to know, and how to enter over on the Studio 397 website, link below;
https://www.studio-397.com/2021/12/announcing-sim-formula-europe-2022/
The rFactor 2 Blog | Cars (Part 2 of 2) Now Available!
That's right, the new 'rFactor 2 Blog' is here, and tonight it is the the 2nd part of our popular topic of cars and rF2.
Read up on everything we have to say on the link below:
https://www.studio-397.com/2021/12/the-rfactor-2-blog-cars-part-2-of-2/